Sometimes when things seem to be going wrong, they are going right for reasons you are yet to understand.I was headed to Lao Cai and Sapa on the overnight train. I considered walking to the train station. But it was dark. And I was tired. And my pack was heavy. So I took a cab. It was the best $1.25 I have possibly ever spent. And the taxi driver didn’t even try to rip me off (something they are well known for). Brilliant. The plan was to take the ...

Don’t tell my mother, but I am lucky to be alive. Halong Bay did not start out well. The four hours that it took to get there were pure hell on earth, made even worse by our drivers kamikaze approach to driving the minibus. After the first hour, I stopped counting the near miss high speed collisions and just closed my eyes and prayed. We did all make it eventually, but before I get to Halong Bay…..Here are a few more examples of my continued cult...

Today I wandered. I strolled in and out of streets just watching the people and lives around me. When I got tired, I stopped at a cafe for a fruit juice or a beer and read my book. I meandered around the lake. I ate ice cream. I watched the Vietnamese people eating ice cream (it was a hot day). I basically did nothing today - and it was perfect. Today was what I am going to call my "do nothing day". The biggest decisions that I had to make today were what...

I saw a woman kill a chicken this morning. On the street. On purpose. She took it out of a cage, broke it's neck, and started plucking feathers. Just like that. Like it was just a regular, everyday occurrence (which maybe to her it was). I suspect it was meant to be part of breakfast, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. I suppose that's what you get when you get up uber-early to go exploring....good to know...I discovered that th...

Hello! It's me! After 20 hours of flying, I have arrived safely in Hanoi, Vietnam. The flight...sucked. Hard. It was ten times worse than the US to New Zealand flight. Here is why:When you fly to NZ, you typically leave the US between 9 and 11pm. You get settled on the plane, maybe watch a movie. They feed you and ply you with wine, and then they turn off all the lights and basically tell you to go to sleep. You then magically arrive in NZ around 6am....